Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Head Start Dental Home Initiative Ripped From The Grip Of The AAPD

In February 2008, just months after Arcapita, American Capital Strategies, Carlyle Group, CIT, Michael Lindley, Al Smith and others bought all the assets of the Small Smiles Dental Clinics from the DeRose "family", the American American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) was awarded $10 million dollars and a 5 year contract to manage the newly created Head Start Dental Home Initiative.

Don't tell me this had nothing to do with the sudden surge of dental mills across America. Of course it did.

In 2009 the AAPD hired a huge PR firm, the MWW Group, to drive home the importance of pediatric dentistry.

In June 2010, the AAPD received the Award of Excellence from the 2010 Associations Advance America Awards program. This AAAA sounds a bit sinister to me. Sounds like an award for their success in being hijacked or something.

By November 2010 the Office of Head Start notified the AAPD their services were no longer needed and would be taking control of the Head Start Dental Home Initiative.